Food Aid Hindered Progress Of Democracy In Africa “The best way to help the millions of hungry people in countries that receive food aid get rid of their corrupt and incompetent rulersÂ â€“ and to ensure that their children will never go hungry in future â€” is to starve them now.…

“African leaders said on Tuesday they could do more to meet U.N. goals to slash extreme poverty and urged stronger leadership among developing countries to tackle hunger and disease and attract investment,” Reuters reports in an article that examines the leaders call for African nations to take greater ownership of their development.

During a U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) address in New York on Wednesday, President Barack Obama outlined “changes in how the United States will pursue international development” and “urged wealthy countries … to maintain development assistance to poor nations,” the Washington Post reports.

Blog: Chan, Shah Stress Importance Of Country Ownership Ministerial Leadership Initiative’s “Leading Global Health” blog has an ongoing series: “In the Driver’s Seat: A Series on Country Ownership of Health Programs.” The first post in the series is an interview with WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, who said “If countries don’t…

The Associated Press examines international aid and advocacy groups’s reaction to the new U.S. Global Development Policy President Barack Obama unveiled Wednesday at the U.N. Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The message that U.S. investments in global health “helps advance longer term security and development goals” while also supporting a “small but growing industry with good paying jobs and world class research” was the focus of a recent meeting between officials from Washington, D.C. and Washington State, the Seattle Times’ “Business of Giving” blog writes.

“Acknowledging that the development of medical countermeasures against bioterrorism threats and pandemic flu is lagging, [U.S.] federal authorities Thursday announced a $1.9 billion makeover of the system for identifying and manufacturing drugs and vaccines for public-health emergencies,” Tribune Company/Seattle Times reports. “The overhaul includes manufacturing refinements aimed at shaving weeks off the time it takes to produce pandemic flu vaccine and a series of steps aimed at more quickly detecting promising scientific discoveries and getting them to market,” the news service writes (Zajac, 8/19).

New This Week In The Kaiser Global Health Policy Tracker: The President’s Malaria Initiative announced a new focus country and USAID released aÂ new fact sheet on the agency’s reform initiative. Kaiser’s Policy Tracker provides a timely single reference point for the latest information on congressional andÂ administrationÂ action on global health. Strengthening…